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Interesting article about the gift tax

The operative sentences is "The reason why we have a gift tax is because we have an estate tax.". Vance further explains "Without a gift tax, the rich could give away all their money before they die and thus avoid paying the estate tax"

Well of course. Some taxes require additional regulations or taxes to discourage tax-avoiding behavior. The capital gains tax begets the wash sale rule. Excessive taxes on the very wealthy require an expatriation tax. And the estate tax requires a gift tax.

Vance goes on to excoriate Republicans for not repealing the gift tax whenever they had the power and political capital to do so. Republicans have of course on multiple occasions tried to limit or repeal the estate tax, or "death tax" as it is often called. But this has been politically difficult. All anyone has to do is to say Paris Hilton's name and voters turn into a cheerleaders for the death tax.

It might be politically smarter to just get rid of the gift tax. Making Paris Hilton even richer and more spoiled than she is is a political loser. But so is congress trying to discourage rich people from giving their money away. And that would be a reasonable charge to make against opponents of gift tax repeal.

Vance is too much of a purist to make this political argument in his article. But it's probably a political winner, and the fact that no one has used it certainly bolsters Vance's charge that Republicans are stupid.